That was around five months ago, so I figured why not go a bit mental again, with half-baked theories that might actually be bang on the proverbial money. Today I propose a conspiracy against Apple. Tin hats on? Let’s rock!

It’s been fairly quiet in the world of mobile of late, with the notable exception of the Samsung Galaxy S4 launch/release.

Last week – according to rumour mill murmurings – was supposed to change all that, with a Nokia Lumia event and Google I/O 2013 taking place over consecutive days. ‘Citing!

Except it wasn’t that exciting at all. What the…?

The Nokia Lumia event was the first disappointment. We were told to expect the 41MP quad-core Nokia EOS, but had to make do with the Nokia Lumia 925.

Google I/O was an even more spectacular washout. Fair enough, we’d been told to forget the Motorola X-Phone and Key Lime Pie Android 5.0, but where was the Nexus 7 refresh; the 32GB Nexus 4; Jelly Bean Android 4.3?

The penny dropped when the white Nexus 4 story broke. It’s threatening to land with Jelly Bean Android 4.3 on – wait for it – June 10.

What happens on June 10? Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference opens its doors to the world, where we’ll get a taste of iOS 7 and possibly a nibble on the iPhone 5S – almost certainly destined to be the biggest selling smartphone of the year.

That’s when it became clear that there was a conspiracy to hold off on various products and instead attempt to steal the limelight from Apple.

Worse still, I (half-jokingly) suggest there might’ve been some collusion between Nokia and Google.

I mean: the timing of Nokia’s event, one day before Google I/O, was no coincidence. I envisioned the Nokia EOS brawling for headlines with the new Nexus 7 and 32GB Nexus 4 with Android 4.3. But nope. None of them appeared. Not a single one.

I like to imagine Schmidt texting Elop and saying: “Hey man! Should we leave the big guns till June 10? Screw with Apple? LOL! :-P x”

After all, Nokia did deliver a new Lumia (technically), and Google I/O was – as it is traditionally – developer-centric. And no one but super-nerds and bloggers expected much anyway. Joe Consumer was – and is – none the wiser.

But come June 10 when he’s thinking: ‘Hmm, I wonder if there’ll be a new iPhone at this Apple thing,’ Google and Nokia will be waiting in the wings to steal his attention. Just you wait.

It’s not like Nokia has much in the way of competition in the Windows Phone arena, anyway. There’s no harm in holding off for a month and announcing the “world’s best smartphone camera” (probably) just as Apple takes the stage.

Similarly, there’s no rush for Google to push the next wave of Nexus devices, or to get the next version of Android out.

Am I talking crazy? Yes. Is there possibly some element of truth/accuracy behind the madness? Maybe. Let’s wait and see what happens in the week of June 10. Me, I predict a riot.

Wow, seriously you're suggesting that companies who are ordinarily rivals (in the loosest sense here, admittedly) might just collaborate to steal the thunder of their biggest rivals?

That's not a conspiracy, it's the nature of PR / Marketing.

The wrong Deep Throat again, Lewis

Yes... I'm disappoint, too Lewis! I was expecting something about Wall Street's deep deep hatred for Apple. Nokia have filed briefs in Apple's support in what? 2 different cases? Google have an interest in Apple's success - they want the ad-money, and Apple sell more iPhones with Google services widely used from them than most Android OEMs sell Googly phones...
That is all business as usual.
What isn't usual is the extremely obvious bull that our money masters toss Apple's way.

Ok what you are describing sounds not at all crazy. Business strategy is all about how and when to launch your product to get a leg up on the competition. Just look at the ps4 vs Xbox thing. Sony announced their console without even having one available to show just to get some mindshare ahead of Xbox announcement. Similarly in phones this happens all the time. Nokia is a relatively small player at this stage in the smartphone race and it needs to position it's launches in such a way that people are still talking about them during an apple launch or another big launch. If every iPhone review includes a comparison to, for example, the Lumia camera, Nokia will do better out of it than apple because apple already has the mindshare and consumer following that they need, whereas many people have no idea about Lumia phones and how they compare to apple.

I would be a little surprised if Nokia and Samsung collaborated given the past hate with allegations of stolen tech and such, but it is possible that they would collaborate if one of them was launching a tablet and the other a phone (two products that won't interfere with each other) in order to not steal each other's thunder.